The plural iPod: A study of technology in action

‘Tuning Out' or ‘Tuning in'? Mobile Music Listening and Intensified Encounters with the City

“…We contend in this essay that, if mobile music devices can be used to ‘tune out' the city, they also allow listeners to ‘tune in' to the urban environment. As Prior notes, these devices allow listeners to ‘withdraw them from the urban, for sure, but also to enhance their social spheres, to reflect on their predicaments, to resist and prick their bubbles' (Prior, : 36). Neglect of the social and physical contexts of music listening in previous accounts of mobile music has led to accounts that emphasize ‘aestheticized' emotions coming from the structure of the music itself (see Juslin and Laukka, ) at the expense of accounts that recognize that uses and experiences of music are often tied directly to experiences, sounds and emotions in the everyday social and physical environment of the listener.…”

“…In this essay, we consider the role of mobile music devices in creating new sonic, emotional and social interactions with and within the urban environment. While academic work in this area has emphasized the use of these devices as a ‘tuning out', to various degrees, of the physical in favour of the virtual (Bull, ), in this essay we argue that this only offers a partial account of the plurality of strategies that listeners use to manage their environments (Prior, ). Specifically, we point to the ways in which listeners might also use music as part of a ‘tuning in' to the urban environment that enhances the meaning and intensity of engagements with the city and others within it.…”

“…Stevenson (: 97) suggests that emotional responses to the city are ‘grounded in diverse patterns and biographies of use, experience and imagination, and informed by a range of social and cultural factors', while Coyne (: 167) emphasizes that movement through the city is ‘opportunistic, drawing on cues, tags, labels, and devices to hand'. Thus, among users of mobile music devices there will be multiple and diverse patterns of practice (Prior, ) as they seek to shape their emotional encounters and non‐encounters with urban spaces and places. In her study of MP3 player use in London, for example, Simun () describes how, while many users did use digital music devices to ‘ignore' their surroundings, some described becoming more receptive to their surroundings, for example, through allowing them to relax and enjoy being in the city.…”

All about that place: tuning in to community radio – listener diary accounts

“…Importantly, it provides insight into the strategies that listeners use, not only to manage their sonic environments (Prior, 2014), but also for affect regulation (Skånland, 2013); that is managing moods and emotions. Other such actions reported by listener diarists include turning the volume up or down, and changing station.…”

Art at the crossroads: The arts in society and the sociology of art

“…These range from the classic studies of working class and youth culture (Hebdige, 1979;McRobbie, 1991;Willis, 1978), devalued cultural forms (Radway, 1984), and the complexity of reception (Ang, 1985) to more recent work on subcultures and lifestyles (Bennett, 1999;Hodkinson, 2002) and digital audiences (Prior, 2014). Although they all encompass many different perspectives, contemporary cultural studies tends to be multidisciplinary, including .…”